Question Weird additionnal cost on new PC with Windows 11

[azurin]

Hello everybody, and first of all, happy new year! 🍻🥂

A close relative of mine wants to buy a new gaming PC, and he went to a BestBuy shop to buy one on discount. The PC has Windows 11, and the technician told him that there are a few things on Windows 11 that suck energy on the computer, and they can enter some lines of code that will fix/deactivate what causes that. It's an additionnal 150$. I've never heard of such things, but I've been much less active and curious lately in the computer domain, so it makes sense that I'm not aware of that kind of thing.

I told my relative that he should just take the PC the way it is right now, so we can make our own research and ask around what's the truth about this. He still have 30 days to bring the PC back anyway.

What's your opinion on this? Is it common practice, or does it sound sketchy?
Thanks a lot for your time and help, it is appreciated.

 

[bignastyid]

Hello everybody, and first of all, happy new year! 🍻🥂

A close relative of mine wants to buy a new gaming PC, and he went to a BestBuy shop to buy one on discount. The PC has Windows 11, and the technician told him that there are a few things on Windows 11 that suck energy on the computer, and they can enter some lines of code that will fix/deactivate what causes that. It's an additionnal 150$. I've never heard of such things, but I've been much less active and curious lately in the computer domain, so it makes sense that I'm not aware of that kind of thing.

I told my relative that he should just take the PC the way it is right now, so we can make our own research and ask around what's the truth about this. He still have 30 days to bring the PC back anyway.

What's your opinion on this? Is it common practice, or does it sound sketchy?
Thanks a lot for your time and help, it is appreciated.

Yes, it is common practice for Best Buy to try and fleece the unknowing.

With prebuilts I suggest doing a clean install to remove the bloatware most of these OEMs(and Best Buy) install.

 

[USAFRet]

What's your opinion on this? Is it common practice, or does it sound sketchy?

Common practice from places like BestBuy, AND sketchy.

Absolutely not needed.

Take you about an hour and $0 to fix that.

How To - Windows 11 clean install tutorial

Windows 11 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows 11, version 23H2 or newer but can be equally applied to earlier versions which may have some basic differences in the screens you see but will largely remain similar in...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[azurin]

Ending the year with clarity!

Thank you very much to both of you. We'll proceed the way you've suggested.

Cheers!

 

[USAFRet]

Ending the year with clarity!

Thank you very much to both of you. We'll proceed the way you've suggested.

Cheers!

I recommend you power it on and get it running and fully activated, THEN do the full wipe and clean install as indicated above.